Unlikely Saint
by RavenDove
Summary: When a Red Cross worker who has forgoten her name shows up at the 4077 it is up to Father Mulcahy to help her remember who she is and come to terms with why she doesn't want to remember.
1. Patient's Name Is Unknown

MASH is not my property, though I've seen every episode so many times it's kind of hard not to try and come up with a story. I doubt you will find this one inspired.

This is not my best effort. I fear I am just writing to write, and trying something different to try and force me out of writer's block.

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Unlikely Saint

by Lyda Mae (RavenDove) Huff

Chapter One: Patient's Name Is Not Known

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The bombs that fell with crescendo on crescendo, allegro in insanity. The only thing that drove them from Dr. Charles Emerson Winchester the third's ears were the screams of the woman in front of him. She lay on a stretcher in the compound of the MASH 4077th with so many others stacked like cord wood instead of like hospital triage should be. She had dirty blond hair and dark eyes that could barely be seen in the fading light.

She was screaming and covered with blood, but it didn't take long for Major Winchester to determine that the majority of it was not hers. She bore only a mild shoulder laceration that had already been taken care of at battalion aide. He pulled out a flashlight to look at the papers battalion aide had sent.

Patient's name is not known

Shoulder Laceration

Possible Head Trauma

Charles held the flashlight to her eyes. They responded normally to light. "Can you hear me?" he asked tentatively.

She suddenly became quiet and closed her eyes. "Our Father Who art In Heaven, Hollowed be Thy name. Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be done, On Earth As it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive... Forgive..." and then she began to scream again with hot tears streaming from her eyes.

She was beyond hearing anything but the bombs Winchester realized. She was in shock from everything around her. He pulled a syringe from his bag and gave her a sedative, then looked up to find Major Margret Houlihan coming toward him. "Have her moved to Post Op and make sure they keep her warm."

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Father Francis Mulcahy looked down at the face of the woman. He wished he had a name to go with her face. Only the initials on a hymn book. A.S.L. and a vile of oil with the words 'I am a Mormon. Please find two Elders.' written on it gave clues to her identity.

She had made it through the night in silence except for two episodes when she had come to crying out for Jesus. The first one had come while he was giving last rites to the soldier in a bed across the way the second he had found himself holding the woman's hand and praying with her to gain her calm.

Now as dawn came she slept but there was no peace in her face.

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	2. Lady Of The Lamp

Unlikely Saint

by Lyda Mae (RavenDove) Huff

Chapter Two: Lady Of The Lamp

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Hawkeye Pierce saw Father Mulcahy rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he made the rounds of Post Op. "Have you been here all night Father?"

Mulcahy looked up a Pierce. "Most of it I'm afraid."

Hawkeye took a look at the chart for the woman. She had been treated for shock and the wound in her shoulder redressed as well as having been cleaned up by the nurses and removed from her torn and blood stained Red Cross Uniform. He took a seat on the opposite side of her bed as the Father and made a closer observation of her condition.

There were marks on her face from bruises that had almost faded and on her neck were finger shaped ones. From his guess they had been very bad, but they were at least two weeks old. Someone had badly mistreated her. Hopefully she would be able to tell them what had happened, and who she was.

"I wish we knew her name." said Mulcahy. "I know that she is a Mormon, and that makes things a little difficult for me."

"How so Father?" Hawkeye asked.

"Only a Later Day Saint Elder can preform the Blessing for the Sick and Afflicted." He nodded his head. "They believe that no other faith has the authority of the priesthood."

"I hope you aren't taking offense at that Father." Hawkeye said.

"Oh no Hawkeye," Mulcahy said, "it's just that there aren't any Mormons in camp at this time, let alone an Elder, and I fear that only such a blessing could bring this woman peace."

"Was her night that bad Father?"

"Yes." Mulcahy said sadly. "She is a God fearing woman Hawkeye, and she has been through more than any God fearing woman should have to bare."

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Corporal Maxwell Klinger set down the phone with a sad face. "I'm sorry Father, there aren't any Latter Day Saints at the 8063rd or the 8055th ."

"You need to keep looking." said Mulcahy.

Klinger sighed. "I'll keep looking Father." He pulled a file out of his in box. "I'll also keep trying to get a list of missing Red Cross workers, but this may take a few days."

Father Mulcahy hung his head and shook it. "The sooner we can find what we need to help this woman the better."

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Margret tried to get the young woman to eat, but now that she was awake she would not suffer anyone to come near her. Worst of all she would not speak but stare at everyone around her with a haunted look somewhere between fear and disbelief.

"Any luck with our Lady Of The Lamp1?" Charles asked as he entered Post Op to find Maj. Houlihan at the foot of the woman's cot trying to convince her to let her bring a tray of food closer.

At the site of Dr. Winchester the woman climbed from the bed and tried to run past. She managed to duck under Winchester's arm and send the tray of food flying from Margret's hands into Charles's face.

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Father Mulcahy was just about to leave Klinger's office when the young woman ran into it and tried to make for the door. Without even thinking about it he stepped in front of the door and faced her. She ran into him and tried to struggle, her small fists striking out. Then she struck the cross on his chest, and looked at it with wider eyes than those of a starving child in a candy store.

"_Confiteor Deo Omnipotenti Et tibi Pater_, _Quia peccavi nimis_, _Cogitatione_, _verbo et opere._2" she said through tears in halting Latin as she took Mulcahy into a tighter hug than he would have liked.

"What did she just say, Father?" Klinger asked as Houlihan and a dripping Winchester came bursting in after the woman.

"What she said Klinger," Said the Father as he helped the woman to sit on the end of Klinger's bed, "is that she has sinned. She has invoked the confessional."

"I thought she was a Mormon, Father." Klinger said with confusion.

"Mormons prefer to be called Saints.3" the woman said through tears.

"Oh," said Klinger, "then you are one."

"I think I am." the look of bewilderment on the woman's face did not make sense.

"What is your name?" Mulcahy asked in as gentle a voice as he could.

The woman looked down at her trembling hands held in the Father's. "I don't remember."

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1. The Lady Of The Lamp is the nick name given to Florence Nightingale by the press during the Krimarian War. She is attributed with the founding of the British Red Cross, so I thought that an unknown Red Cross nurse being called that would be fitting.

2. This literally translates to (I confess to God Almighty, and to you Father, that I have sinned, in thought, in word and in deed.)

3. It is true that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are encouraged to use the name Saints when referring to themselves, and always have been. The term Mormon is a nick name originally intended as a rude Epithet derived from one of the books of scripture accepted by the LDS Church. It has been discourage in common use, but is used by Church members along with the term Saints anyway.

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	3. Did You Think To Pray?

Unlikely Saint

by Lyda Mae (RavenDove) Huff

Chapter Three: Did You Think To Pray?

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BJ Hunnicut struggle to finish suturing a wound as the cannons went off around him. He hated battalion aide duty. He'd been here for two days. With any luck he would be heading back to the 4077 tonight. Then he could sleep in his own cot.

The next soldier in line for his care had a fairly minor leg wound. Though the man must have been in pain he was reading scripture in the morning light. "Do you always read the Bible during an artillery barrage?"

"It's not the Bible." the soldier said. "It's the book of Mormon1, and I try to read at least a chapter of scripture each day."

"I should be honored." Hunnicut joked. "I don't think I've ever pulled shrapnel out of the leg of a Saint before2."

The soldier smiled. "My name's Andrus." He put the book back in his pocket as they moved him to the make shift operating table. "Corpral Milo Andrus3, from Spanish Fork, Utah." The Fork was pronounced more like Fark.

"Well Elder Andrus," BJ said as he took a look at the leg, "I'll have you doing the two step on R&R in Tokyo before you know it."

"I'm afraid my wife would object." Andrus said. "I promised her and my daughters that I'd save all my two stepping for them."

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_Ere you left your bed this morning,  
Did you think to pray?  
In the name of Christ our Savior,_  
Did you sue for loving favor  
As a shield today?

_Oh, how praying rests the weary!  
Prayer will change the night to day.  
So when life gets dark and dreary,  
Don't forget to pray._

_When your heart was filled with anger,  
Did you think to pray?  
Did you plead for grace my brother,  
That you might forgive another  
Who had crossed your way?_

_Oh, how praying rests the weary!  
Prayer will change the night to day.  
So when life gets dark and dreary,  
Don't forget to pray._

_When sore trials came upon you,  
Did you think to pray?  
When your soul was full of sorrow_,  
_Balm of Gilead did you borrow  
At the gates of day?_

_Oh, how praying rests the weary!  
Prayer will change the night to day.  
So when life gets dark and dreary,  
Don't forget to pray._4

Father Mulcahy was impressed at the pure tones of their foundling's voice. "That was beautiful." he told her as the last note died.

"I remember singing that with a large choir5." She told him.

"Do you remember everything else?"

She thought a moment. "Stained glass windows and paintings of the stations of the cross, but they weren't in the church that I usually went to6." She closed her eyes in deep thought. "I remember a priest officiating at a wedding when I was small."

"Perhaps you are a convert to Mormonism or you have a close relative that is Catholic."

"We are all converts to a faith if we truly believe." she said. "If we just go through the motions, then it is not in our hearts."

"That is a good point." Mulcahy rubbed his eyes. We've been talking for most of the morning, and I didn't sleep at all last night."

"I'm sorry father." The woman picked up her tray from the table. "Perhaps there is someone who can help me find my way back to Post Op so you can get some rest."

Mulcahy stood, "It's on my way child."

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1. The LDS Church accept The Bible, The Book Of Mormon, The Doctrine And Covenants, and the Pear Of Great Price as books of scripture. It is possible to perches a book called a quad combination that contains all four books of scripture that is published by The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It is available in standard, pocket and Large print editions.

2. Being from the West Coast BJ is more likely to have had interactions with LDS church members of that era. Specifically in medical school and residency.

3. Milo Andrus is the name of my husbands maternal grandfather. A Mormon who actually served in the army during the Korean War. This character is not biased on him, only named in his honor.

4. The song _Did You Think to Pray? _Is a Mormon hymn written by Mary A. Pepper Kidder, 1820-1905 and composed by William O. Perkins, 1831-1902. It is listed as hymn 140 in the current Hymn book used by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

5. The largest Mormon choir is the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, but that doesn't mean this is the choir my character is singing with in her memory.

6. The most elaborate and famous Catholic Church in Utah is the Cathedral of the Madlen in Salt Lake City, Utah. My character has been there at some point in her life.

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	4. Answer To a Prayer

Unlikely Saint

by Lyda Mae (RavenDove) Huff

Chapter Four: Answer To A Prayer

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Hawkeye was in the compound when the last ambulance of the day came in. There had been a lull in the number of men they were being sent since dinner time, and this was the last batch they were expecting. When the door of the ambulance popped open Hawk grabbed the end of a stretcher and found himself facing BJ at the other end.

"This one's got a belly wound that can't wait. The other two are more minor." said Hunnicut.

"How about the others?"

"One has a separated shoulder and a flesh wound." said Hunnicut as he steered the first guy to Pre Op. "The other has a leg wound with a lot of collateral damage, but no vascular." They set the man down on a pallet. "I heard from Klinger that Father Mulcahy has been looking for some Latter Day Saints."

"We had a Red Cross worker come in last night from another aide station than the one you were at that's a Mormon."

"The leg wound is one too."

Hawkeye shook his head. "The Father will be glad to hear it."

"How bad off is the Red Cross worker?"

"She's fine accept for the fact that she was beaten about two weeks ago and can't remember who she is." Hawkeye admitted to his friend. "Klinger's been trying to get a list of missing Red Cross people."

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Charles heard screaming from the VIP Tent, so he entered. Their guest had been moved there since she didn't really need to stay in Post Op. He turned on the light and was greeted by a wild face. Here eyes were open, but he didn't dare to touch her with that hatred in them. Her face softened and she began to cry.

Charles moved closer, "Are you alright?"

"When I close my eyes I see such terrible things, but when I wake up I can't remember what they were." She clutched her pillow and sobbed even harder.

Charles was not sure how to comfort her.

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	5. Unfinished Chapter

Please don't read yet.

The following chapter is not yet finished ad has only been uploaded so I may reach it from another computer.

Lyda Mae (Raven Dove) Huff

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Unlikely Saint

by Lyda Mae (RavenDove) Huff

Chapter Five: The Man From Honolulu

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Michael Fujyra had been fourteen when the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. Injuries from the attack had cost the Hawaiian/Japanese boy his right hand and most of the hearing in his right ear, but he had refused to let that stop him from living the life he wanted. At the age of twenty-three he had joined the American Red Cross and come to Korea. Now he was looking for a fellow Red Cross worker who had gone missing when they had to evacuate a refugee center West of Soel.


End file.
